When I am in Singapore's Chinatown and want to eat chicken rice, the top of my mind stall is Heng Ji 亨記雞飯 in Chinatown Complex hawker centre.
Heng Ji works the night shift in Chinatown Complex hawker centre, opening slightly after 3pm and closing around 8pm. Heng Ji is in one of the dark burrows of the Red Zone in the labyrinth of some 220 stalls in Singapore's largest hawker centre.
Though rarely mentioned in media or social media, Heng Ji has its loyal following. Expect to queue with locals during dinner.
Heng Ji is one of Singapore's storied chicken rice stalls, one of the rare few where the original family is still running the heritage stall. Heng Ji founded by Kai Chok Heng is now in its second generation, run by his son Chan Yeow Seng and daughter-in-law Lim En Ai 林恩爱.
Heng Ji was operating along Smith Street, the famous foodie alley of Singapore Chinatown before the hawker stalls were relocated into Chinatown Complex in 1983. I have been eating Heng Ji's chicken rice since the 1970s when it was on Smith Street.
Heng Ji is one of Singapore's storied chicken rice stalls, one of the rare few where the original family is still running the heritage stall. Heng Ji founded by Kai Chok Heng is now in its second generation, run by his son Chan Yeow Seng and daughter-in-law Lim En Ai 林恩爱.
Heng Ji was operating along Smith Street, the famous foodie alley of Singapore Chinatown before the hawker stalls were relocated into Chinatown Complex in 1983. I have been eating Heng Ji's chicken rice since the 1970s when it was on Smith Street.
The famed Sin Kee Chicken Rice of the old Margaret Drive Hawker Centre has its roots in Heng Ji as its founder Leong Fook Weng used to be an apprentice at Heng Ji.
In today's Singapore, deep fried chicken (referred to as roast chicken) outsells traditional poached chicken at chicken rice stalls. Even soya sauce chicken is growing in popularity after Hawker Chan's Hong Kong soya sauce chicken stall clinched a Michelin Star in 2016. Still Heng Ji, stuck to their guns in serving the same old school 白斩鸡 "white chopped" poached chicken only.
All these food for $10.60 (half bird) at 2019 prices. I don't know where else to get good chicken rice at this price in Singapore. (Oh... Heng Ji doesn't serve soup with their chicken rice. Never did. All the soup used to poach the chicken went into cooking the rice.)
The chicken was chopped and served in large meaty chunks with bone in. I can smell the natural aroma of fresh chicken.
Boss was very liberal with the salty-savoury dark sauce and aromatic oil which pooled at the bottom of the plastic disposable plate.
The chicken was served cold as it was dunked in cold water (in the Cantonese tradition) to lock in the flavours and to get the visceral fats to gel.
The meat was very tender, smooth and juicy with natural chicky sweetness. A bit of dark sauce and oil, added savouriness and aromatics to the chicken. I love it.
The light brown yellowish rice made with much broken grains was soft and starchy but nicely savoury salty sweet and aromatic. It was not overly greasy.
Heng Ji isn't very strong in the sauce department. Both the ginger and chili dips were watery though I did find the savoury spicy ginger quite likeable. Still, as long as the chicken is very good, I can overlook a lot of things at chicken rice stalls 😂
Recommended for you 👍 If you want to try no frills, old school Singapore chicken rice, get it at Heng Ji in Chinatown Complex hawker centre. You will get an authentic Singapore hawker centre experience too.
Johor Kaki's Best of Singapore food list 👈 click
In today's Singapore, deep fried chicken (referred to as roast chicken) outsells traditional poached chicken at chicken rice stalls. Even soya sauce chicken is growing in popularity after Hawker Chan's Hong Kong soya sauce chicken stall clinched a Michelin Star in 2016. Still Heng Ji, stuck to their guns in serving the same old school 白斩鸡 "white chopped" poached chicken only.
All these food for $10.60 (half bird) at 2019 prices. I don't know where else to get good chicken rice at this price in Singapore. (Oh... Heng Ji doesn't serve soup with their chicken rice. Never did. All the soup used to poach the chicken went into cooking the rice.)
The chicken was chopped and served in large meaty chunks with bone in. I can smell the natural aroma of fresh chicken.
Boss was very liberal with the salty-savoury dark sauce and aromatic oil which pooled at the bottom of the plastic disposable plate.
The chicken was served cold as it was dunked in cold water (in the Cantonese tradition) to lock in the flavours and to get the visceral fats to gel.
The meat was very tender, smooth and juicy with natural chicky sweetness. A bit of dark sauce and oil, added savouriness and aromatics to the chicken. I love it.
The light brown yellowish rice made with much broken grains was soft and starchy but nicely savoury salty sweet and aromatic. It was not overly greasy.
Heng Ji isn't very strong in the sauce department. Both the ginger and chili dips were watery though I did find the savoury spicy ginger quite likeable. Still, as long as the chicken is very good, I can overlook a lot of things at chicken rice stalls 😂
Recommended for you 👍 If you want to try no frills, old school Singapore chicken rice, get it at Heng Ji in Chinatown Complex hawker centre. You will get an authentic Singapore hawker centre experience too.
Johor Kaki's Best of Singapore food list 👈 click
Written by Tony Boey on 1 Feb 2019 | Updated 2 Apr 2021
This evening I joined makan buddies at Chinatown Complex for dinner. As we walked pass Heng Ji Chicken Rice, I casually remarked to Pearl that the chicken hanging in the window looked plump and juicy. Buddy Allan said he was going to bring us to eat the "3 o'clock chicken" but I didn't know what he was referring to.
Not long after sitting down, Allan came back with two large plates of poached chicken. Only after asking Allan about this "3 o'clock chicken" did I realised that Allan was referring to Heng Ji.
Alan calls Heng Ji the "3 o'clock chicken" because the stall opens at 3pm. Allan so kindly queued for the chicken while we sat comfortably chatting. Thanks buddy 😊 At that moment, I also recalled that buddy Tony Tee had also been telling me about this chicken rice stall before.
The thing about Heng Ji is that they are rather nonchalant about niceties like plating. No matter how I turned this plate of chicken, I couldn't get a photogenic shot of the heap. (I like my food to look nice - then can take nice pictures mah 😜 )
But, one bite into this chunky tender, juicy white flesh, and I am completely sold. Each bite into the soft smooth meat released the fresh chicken's natural sweetness along with a subtle chicky taste. The chicken was done very slightly pink.
The chicken innards though only slight in flavour had nice crunchy (gizzard) or mashy grainy (liver) texture.
The blended oil and soy sauce dressing pooled at the bottom of the plastic plate - it was quite flat savoury salty in flavour. I didn't used it much as I love the chicken without any dressing.
The thing about Heng Ji is that they are rather nonchalant about niceties like plating. No matter how I turned this plate of chicken, I couldn't get a photogenic shot of the heap. (I like my food to look nice - then can take nice pictures mah 😜 )
But, one bite into this chunky tender, juicy white flesh, and I am completely sold. Each bite into the soft smooth meat released the fresh chicken's natural sweetness along with a subtle chicky taste. The chicken was done very slightly pink.
The chicken innards though only slight in flavour had nice crunchy (gizzard) or mashy grainy (liver) texture.
The blended oil and soy sauce dressing pooled at the bottom of the plastic plate - it was quite flat savoury salty in flavour. I didn't used it much as I love the chicken without any dressing.
The chili and dark soy sauces (dips) were just average tasting but it hardly mattered (to me) as the chicken was already so tasty. No.... the chili sauce tasted a bit odd and heavy on salt. The soy sauce was balanced with caramel or sugar. I didn't taste the ginger dip because it looked watery 😛
The rice was well oiled but not overly greasy. The tender grains had firmness to the bite. There were whole and broken grains, and they were stuck together. The rice had a nice savoury taste and subtle chicky aroma.
After my delicious chicken rice meal, I went to say hello to stall holder Ms 林恩爱 (her helper told me). Needless to say, Ms Lim was extremely busy. Tony Tee told me that Ms Lim has been running Heng Ji for 30 years and this stall was founded by her father-in-law decades earlier. Tony shared that Ms Lim is an accomplished Cantonese opera singer.
Heng Ji's chicken is reasonably priced at SGD20 a bird. Thank you, Allan for the treat 😄
4-Star (out of 5). The sauces were average and there was no soup. The chicken was served in a haphazard pile on a disposable floppy plastic plate. Cutlery is a pair of disposable soft wooden chopsticks and plastic spoon. But, all is forgotten once I tasted the delicious tender juicy chicken.
If I assessed Heng Ji's chicken rice by breaking it down to components like chicken, dressing, sauces (dips), rice and soup, and allocated points like it's a maths problem, then Heng Ji wouldn't score high. But, hey, food is about feelings as much as flavours to me, and based on how the chicken alone tastes, Heng Ji is now one of my favourite chicken rice stalls in Singapore. I am illogical like that.
Johor Kaki's Best of Singapore List 👈 click
Restaurant name: Heng Ji Chicken Rice 亨記雞飯
Address: Blk 335, Smith Street #02-131, Chinatown Food Complex, Singapore 050335
Map: http://bit.ly/HKSoyaSauceChicken
GPS: 1.282705, 103.842889
Hours: 3:00pm to 8:00pm (Sunday off)
Non Halal
Date visited: 5 Nov 2016
Return to Johor Kaki homepage.
The rice was well oiled but not overly greasy. The tender grains had firmness to the bite. There were whole and broken grains, and they were stuck together. The rice had a nice savoury taste and subtle chicky aroma.
After my delicious chicken rice meal, I went to say hello to stall holder Ms 林恩爱 (her helper told me). Needless to say, Ms Lim was extremely busy. Tony Tee told me that Ms Lim has been running Heng Ji for 30 years and this stall was founded by her father-in-law decades earlier. Tony shared that Ms Lim is an accomplished Cantonese opera singer.
Heng Ji's chicken is reasonably priced at SGD20 a bird. Thank you, Allan for the treat 😄
4-Star (out of 5). The sauces were average and there was no soup. The chicken was served in a haphazard pile on a disposable floppy plastic plate. Cutlery is a pair of disposable soft wooden chopsticks and plastic spoon. But, all is forgotten once I tasted the delicious tender juicy chicken.
If I assessed Heng Ji's chicken rice by breaking it down to components like chicken, dressing, sauces (dips), rice and soup, and allocated points like it's a maths problem, then Heng Ji wouldn't score high. But, hey, food is about feelings as much as flavours to me, and based on how the chicken alone tastes, Heng Ji is now one of my favourite chicken rice stalls in Singapore. I am illogical like that.
Johor Kaki's Best of Singapore List 👈 click
Restaurant name: Heng Ji Chicken Rice 亨記雞飯
Address: Blk 335, Smith Street #02-131, Chinatown Food Complex, Singapore 050335
Map: http://bit.ly/HKSoyaSauceChicken
GPS: 1.282705, 103.842889
Hours: 3:00pm to 8:00pm (Sunday off)
Non Halal
Date visited: 5 Nov 2016
Return to Johor Kaki homepage.
wahhh...tony ah hia ! Never eat this before. Shall go next week. Our logic is those anyhow chop one is tamade taste the best !!
ReplyDeletetry try let me know this eh sai boh (good or no 😜)
DeleteUsed to be very good but standards have dropped. Now the chilli is terrible and the ginger watery and not much flavour. Chicken not as smooth and juicy as before. Was my weekly chicken rice fix long ago but haven't tried them again for a long time.
ReplyDelete